Time and Chaos
by toSempiternity
Summary: Captured by an unknown force, the children of the Big Three are taken, leaving nothing but traces of a weird sort of Egyptian magic. Furious, Olympus immediately blames the just recovered magicians in Brooklyn House...and chaos assumes. ON HIATUS.
1. Φύσα Έως Ι Μανχάταν

_**WARNING**__: The following story is a recording of a digital transcription. The author has no claim for its authenticity, although if it is true (which the narrators assured me at the beginning that it is), it is a rather hard-to-believe story. At some parts, the audio quality was poor; whether it was because the narrator at that point dropped it in a pit full of hissing snakes (judging by the noise in the background) or a Chimera or a _bau_ has been chasing the narrators, or one of the narrators has zapped some certain others so those parts represent the author's best guesses. There has been some cursing and swearing in foreign languages—Egyptian, Latin, Modern Greek, and Ancient Greek—among the slapping, kicking, and hitting. The author has very sparingly included these actions and foul manner to give you, the reader an idea of how much they quarrel with each other. Most background noises except for those in English (other than cursing and swearing and such) have not been transcribed in this story, with the exception of noises such as laughing, snorting, and the general sneezes and coughs, although those were not terribly necessary. Thank you for your consideration. The author hopes that you enjoy the crazy story._

Chapter I

**Sadie**

**Preface**

First off, we want to guarantee you that _this is a true event_. As preposterous as it may seem, all of the proceedings that are mentioned actually happened.

Percy's saying that I really should stop loitering and get on with the story already (he's sounding like me, actually, except that I usually address Carter that way) but I guess that he's right—he's much more convincing than Carter the chicken warrior. So I think I'm going to start when I blew up half of Manhattan.

"~*~*~*~*~"

Oh, the day started normally enough. With Apophis vanquished, everything was at its ordinary state—that is, as ordinary as you can get when you're an Egyptian magician.

"Hey, Felix!" I called.

"Yeah?" he answered, pausing in the middle of a spell.

"No more penguins," I said.

Felix looked incredibly disappointed. "Aw…"

Truth to be told, I did not like penguins anymore—after one of the Adele penguins that Felix summoned pooped on my bed.

That's when my excuse of a brother skidded in. He was drenched in water from head to toe.

"What was it this time?" I asked, annoyed by the dripping 'plip, plop, plip, plop' on the floor. "Did you just happen to take a shower while forgetting to take off your clothes, or did you 'accidentally' fall into the river again?"

Jaz smiled. "You mean the time when the Emperor penguin—" she threw a look over her shoulder to glance at a blushing Felix, "—pushed Carter into the East River?"  
>"That's the one," I agreed.<p>

"It _was_ an accident!" Carter pouted. I was positive that he did not know how much he looked like a whining kindergartner.

**[Ow! Don't kick me, it was true! **_**Some guffaws in the background**_**.]**

"Well," he began. "I was pushed into the East River—"

"By a penguin?" I interjected.

"No! By a flying horse."

That sounded so incredibly dumb at the moment that I was doubling over with silent laughter. I heard Jaz's voice from far, far off from oblivion: "Sadie, are you alright? You're turning purple."

I couldn't say anything.

Carter waited until my laughter had sufficiently decreased enough for me to hear him, and then continued.

"So as I was saying, I was pushed into the East River by a flying horse."

"I still find that hard to believe," I loudly whispered to Jaz.

"There was this blond girl on the horse when I climbed out, and she started yelling at me about kidnapping three demigods of the Big Three—whatever that means. And then—"

"What's going on?" Bast asked, trotting into the room. I heard someone say that Sadie was turning purple."

"Yeah," Jaz said sincerely. "'S far as I know, Sadie was never a prune."

"Hey!"

Felix piped up. "Carter was talking about how a flying horse kicked him into the water—"

Bast got pale when she heard the words 'flying horse'.

"—and how a blond girl was on it and she told Carter that he had kidnapped three demigods of the Big Three—"

Bast's hair poofed up. "Did you say…" she slowly asked. "Three demigods of the 'Big Three'?"

"Yes," Felix nonchalantly answered.

"Oh, that's bad," Bast said. "Let's take a look outside."

"~*~*~*~*~"

It was just as Carter had described it—there was a girl saddling a… flying horse up while talking to another girl who was also blond.

"…Linen pajamas," Blond number one was saying. "Who wears linen pajama-ish clothes these days? Not to mention in a kidnapping mission."

The other girl tilted her head. "Like them?"

"Yes, exactly like them," Blondie said without turning around.

"You haven't looked yet," the other girl said placidly. "Unless you have eyes on the back of your head…"

"Shut up, Reyna," Blondie scowled.

The other girl chuckled. "Greeks," she muttered playfully. "You are so annoying, Annabeth."

"And Romans are so much better, aren't they?"

Reyna smiled. "I never said that."

"Again," Blondie—um, Annabeth—said exasperatedly, "shut up."

Bast frowned. "Since when did Greek and Roman demigods get along?"

"Since the Second Giant War ended," Annabeth grumbled. "If you ask me, it was a mistake. Now, what did you do to them? And who are you?"

Reyna rummaged around her backpack. "I've got the files here somewhere…"

I was horrified. "You have files? On who?"

"On you," Annabeth muttered. "Isn't that wonderful?"

"And you're such a bright ray of sunshine," Reyna said, still flipping through her pack.

Reyna had apparently found the file and withdrew her head from the backpack. She started flipping through the thick yellow folder. "Um… I presume that the girl with the combat boots—huh, I bet you that Thalia would've liked her."

"You're getting off track," Annabeth reminded her. "And, no bet. That's a one-hundred percent yes."

"Whoa, wait a second," I began. Of course, they ignored me. The nerve!

"Is Sadie Kane," Reyna said, poring over the files. "And the guy… what kind of person transforms into an avatar with a chicken's head?"

Carter groaned, his face bright red. Felix patted him comfortingly on the back—very much unlike him.

"Carter Kane, aren't you?" Reyna asked, raising an eyebrow at the penguin that was making a nest out of Carter's hair. Never mind about Felix not being Felix—that is just the sort of thing that Felix would do. Talk about a hopeless case—a combat magician that couldn't even get a lowly penguin that was an eighth of his size off of his head.

Annabeth waved aside Reyna impatiently. "Got it, got it, we don't need a whole biography on Egyptian magicians."

Reyna huffed, clearly annoyed.

Annabeth continued, obviously unaware of Reyna's expression. "And now, to the important issue, where in Styx did you take them?"

"Who are _them_?" Carter asked. Gosh, for a boy that has traveled the whole wide world with Dad and has learned so much about Egypt, he's pretty dang dumb at times.

Reyna coughed loudly. Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You seriously don't know? Didn't I tell you, like, real loudly that I said that _the children of the Big Three were kidnapped by a lot like you_?"

"Um…" was all Carter had to say to that. I know, completely clueless.

Bast stammered, "But, but…"

That was very much unlike her.

"But _what_?" Annabeth peevishly snapped. "But what?"

"Aren't children, um, of the Big Three supposed, um, to have powers, um, greater that other, um, half-bloods?" Bast finished lamely.

Reyna edged away from Annabeth, who looked like she was about to explode—her face was as red from magma that spews out of an extremely lethal and dangerous volcano.

"Ah, Annabeth?" Reyna nervously said. "I'd, er, suggest that you don't blow up…"

Awkward silence. I groped for my staff in case anything bad happened, which I was sure will happen in one second.

Annabeth just kept as still as a statue.

Bast nudged me. "Is it just me, or is she crying?"

I looked closely. Sure enough, there were tears sparkling unhappily on her cheeks.

**[Well, Annabeth, you should have kept your feelings to yourself at that time, then. Stop protesting, Wise Girl.]**

"No, it's me too," I assured Bast.

Annabeth turned stiffly around. "You'd better come with us to Olympus."

Bast choked. "What? Zeus will blow us all up."

Reyna frowned at her. "No, he won't."

"Is Zeus nice?" Carter piped up. I groaned. I shouldn't have left Carter to make a stupid comment like that.

Annabeth looked at Reyna. "Well," she hesitantly began, a twinge of doubt entering her voice. "I… I guess it depends…"

"Like how?" Jaz asked skeptically.

Reyna flinched. "Like, when Jupiter isn't angry or cold at us demigods… which happens about once every billion years. I don't think that this is one of the times, but he won't blast you into a million pieces of sand or a billion fiery flames."

I wasn't reassured. This 'Zeus' person _had_ to be nice to somebody. Right? When I saw the looks on Reyna and Annabeth's face, I wasn't sure that I wouldn't be a billion little particles of Sadie sand at the end of this.

"But what about his kids?" I pressed.

Annabeth cringed now. "Uh, like, not exactly… but sometimes… for instance—"

I didn't want to hear about this.

"Save it, please? For later?" I pleaded. "I think that we all get the point."

Annabeth looked relieved to be able to worm out of the situation. "All right, get on."

I blinked. There were about five of us. Only four flying klepto horses. "How will we all fit?"

Annabeth cursed loudly. "I _told_ Jason to bring the chariot! He was supposed to be here, like, ten minutes ago."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Leave it to Sparky to mess everything up," she said. One time, he forgot to come to dinner. Lupa almost shredded him to bits for missing evening sacrifices."

At about the same time she said that, Annabeth yelped as a guy that was lugging a wooden box on wheels behind him crashed into her. I presumed that he was 'Jason'.

"Hey, Reyna," he greeted Reyna. He then looked around, confused. "Where's Annabeth?"

"You're sitting on her!" Reyna and I scowled at him.

There was a sound like a duck getting trampled underneath the guy.

"I'm what?" he asked. What, did he have hearing problems?

Reyna stomped right to his face. "You. Are. Sitting. On. Annabeth. Chase." She enunciated each word slowly and clearly.

"I'm what?"

Reyna pushed Jason (and hard) off of Annabeth. She reappeared, looking like she had her face smashed into concrete. "I'm—I'm…"

"No, you're not," Reyna said.

"Y—y—" Annabeth started to say. Then, she collapsed.

"Oh, great job," Reyna said.

"Um, hellllloo?" I said. "We're still here!"

Reyna wordlessly lugged the chariot towards the four flying horses, attached it, and put Annabeth on it. She gestured with her hand for me and the others to get on. "We don't have all day."

"Are the pegasi strong enough?" Carter uncertainly asked. What the heck are 'pegasi'?

Reyna looked at him as if he were crazy. She shoved the person who sat on Annabeth onto the chariot and got on herself. She lashed the horses, and they took off. I had to grab onto the railings to stop myself from falling off. I felt like I was going to throw up. I was sure that my face had turned as green as green could get.

**[Stop laughing, chicken man, as I recall, you weren't much better.]**

"Please tell me we're not going into Manhattan," Jaz whispered. "Do not tell me that."

Jason arched an eyebrow at Jaz. "What's so wrong about Manhattan?"

Jaz frowned. "Apparently, there are some 'problems' in Manhattan. I don't know what." She looked at Bast.

"Exactly where we are going to," Bast said nervously. "Olympus."

"~*~*~*~*~"

That was rather unexpected. "We're what?"

Bast replied, "Amos told you about how Manhattan had its own problems, right?"

I thought about it. When I first came to Brooklyn House, Amos told me that Manhattan had its own problems. And then, Carter had told me that he had seen flying horses. I had laughed in his face when he told me that, but I thought it over again.

"Yeah," I said after a long time.

"The Greek gods," Bast said. "That's the problem."

"Oh."

The pegasi neighed.

"We're almost there," Annabeth said, having apparently woken up.

Reyna steadied the pegasi to a halt at the entrance to the… what do you New Yorkers call it? Oh, yes, the 'Empire State Building'. I should've known.

"That's Olympus?" Carter asked. "The Empire State Building is Olympus? Is this some kind of joke?"

"No," Reyna said. She walked right in, followed by Jason. Annabeth gestured for us magicians to get in. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

I hesitantly stepped in.

Reyna was arguing with the lobby person who was at the counter. Annabeth put a hand on her shoulder and flicked the doorman a card. He read it, and nodded. "Elevator on the right. Here's the key card."

"How did she do that?" I asked Reyna. She grinned. "Ah, Annabeth did a favor with Percy by saving Olympus a couple years ago. In return, she got appointed as the official Architect of Olympus. So technically, except when the gods went silent, she has unlimited access to Olympus."

Annabeth ushered us into the elevator and inserted the key card in a slot. A new button appeared, a red one that read: "600".

"There are only 102 floors—" Carter began.

"In the _mortal_ Empire State Building," Annabeth tiredly said. "We are going to Olympus's floor. What did you expect; we would climb all the way up to the clouds?"

We spent the rest of the elevator ride in silence, which I must say took _forever_. And the music was terrible as well—did these Olympian gods really like "So Yesterday" music? I was liking the Greek and Roman gods less and less.

The elevator gave a pleasant _ding_ and the doors opened. I almost had a heart attack. We were floating about a million miles into the air—the only walkway we had was a polished marble path.

"You are not seriously expecting me to cross the chasm on a marble walkway that is suspended a billion miles in midair."

Jason caught the look on my face, and Reyna intervened. "You know who you look like at this moment?" she chuckled. "And don't worry, it's safe."

Carter studied me. "What do you look like…? A frog that has undergone plastic surgery," he decided.

I gave him a shove. "Shut up!"

"No, no," Reyna said. "You look like Thalia when she is on a very high cliff."

I was confused. "Why? And who is Thalia?"

Jason got a really stony look on his face. Annabeth swiveled and glowered at me. I got a feeling that I had just made matters personal.

"Never mind, very courteous people," I muttered. "Don't mind me; I'm just an innocent bystander."

Annabeth turned back towards the front and didn't say anything for a while. Jason walked with a heavier gate, his shoulders drooped.

Reyna fell in pace with me. "Oh, don't mind them," she said lightly. "Annabeth is still sore from losing Percy for a second time, and Jason… well, he was separated from Thalia when he was two."

A nagging suspicion tugged at the corner of my mind. "Separated," I mused. "Brother and sister?"

"Yep," Reyna sighed. "Precisely. So you can guess why Jason is acting a bit… downcast. Yeah, that's the word."

"And Annabeth?" I asked.

Reyna frowned at that. "She never told me. She gave Jason a very vague hint when Juno, also known as Hera, transferred him to Camp Half-Blood, and the very least I could figure out is that Thalia has something to do with a pine tree that is at the borders of Camp Half-Blood, and Annabeth had something to do with it. In fact, I don't think she's told anyone what had happened since Percy first went to the Greek camp."

I made a mental note to interrogate Annabeth as soon as we were alone. "So the Greek camp is…?"

"Camp Half-Blood," Reyna replied. "There's another one all out west in Frisco—"

"Frisco?" I queried.

"San Francisco," Reyna said. "It's basically another sanctuary for demigods—I'll tell you what demigods are later—but it's a Roman version. It's way more strict then the Greek camp, but it all depends on whether your parent is a Greek version of a god—like Zeus—or a Roman version—like Jupiter. You understand?"

"I understood about fifty percent of it," I said, a little disappointed that I hadn't understood more.

"That's good. That's good," Reyna sighed. "Most people don't understand ten percent."

"Are you saying that just to make me feel better?" I demanded.

"No," Reyna said. "Why would I?"

Annabeth paused under a set of gleaming bronze and gold doors.

"Made of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold," she explained noticing our—by "our", I mean Carter, Jaz, Felix, and I—dumbstruck expressions. "It took ages to mine that much bronze and gold—not to mention forging it."

This time, I understood about a millionth of a percent. "Huh?"

"It's not important," Annabeth said. "What is important is that you be respectful to the gods all times. They tend to get aggravated very easily, if you know what I mean. And there is also those two major Egyptian gods—what are their names—Horus and Isis."

She pushed open the doors and I almost got another heart attack.

Twelve humongous adults were sitting on these equally colossal thrones. The gods who had inhabited our heads for a time, a.k.a. Horus and Isis were also grown in size and sitting on simple marble guest thrones. Carter managed to stammer out: "W-wha-what?"

I wasn't particularly sure if that scored him any points with the assembled gods, and their next action proved that my thinking was correct.

**[Oh, save it, Carter, your turn will come soon enough! Stop pouting!]**

Every set of eyes turned to Carter. He quailed under the looks that twelve of the fourteen super beings sent to him.

Bast nervously twittered. "Long time no see, Zeus. I thought that after the Treaty of—"

The man in the pinstriped suit stood up. "Yes," he said brusquely. "I know, Bast. But considering that my daughter is on the edge of disappearing off the face of the earth while not in human state for the _second time in a decade_—"

He threw a nasty look at an oily looking chap that was slouching on an obsidian throne, who played all innocent.

"—some… _revisements_ have been made, with, of course, the consent of Horus and Isis. And, of course, because of the dangers posed to the sons of my brothers."

The two gods that had not sent icy looks towards Carter's way—Horus and Isis—didn't look happy at the prospect.

"I _told_ you, Father, that I could've gone looking for them," Jason grouched. "But why wouldn't you listen? Thalia's my _sister_. I can't let her escape from my grasp again!"

That officially proved it.

Zeus's eyes flashed. "And lose you in the process?" he questioned.

Horus stood up. "Zeus, I cannot stress enough that the House of Life has already turned to our side—they re-opened the path of the Egyptian gods, and are on extremely good terms with us. It is unlikely that they have 'kidnapped' your children."

"And where is the Snake of Chaos?" one of the women questioned. Annabeth and Reyna both groaned, "Mother!"

"Banished to deep in the Duat," Isis answered. "I keep on telling you that some Greek or Roman foe captured your children."

"Then how come I sensed some Egyptian magic lingering where I last saw Percy?" a guy in a Tommy Bermuda shirt and khaki pants challenged. "Why did Artemis find the remnants of a ceramic _shabti_ near where her lieutenant was last seen? Why did Hades find a demon in his realm? What do you have to prove that the House of Life turned against you and kidnapped our children? And most importantly, why did they do it?"

The goddess in a silvery outfit scowled. "It was made of red stone," she added. "And the next thing I learn, Thalia is gone." She glared at the oily dude. He shrugged. "I have nothing to do with it, Artemis, I swear on the River Styx!"

Thunder boomed.

Jaz hesitantly raised her hand. "But… but, what if this person that kidnapped your kids was a Greek or Roman, but they used Egyptian relics to make you believe that it was the House of Life?"

Horus spread his arms and clapped his hands. "There you go, Zeus."

Zeus's beard smoldered in rage. "And where did the Greek or Roman kidnapper get the relics and demons?" he quietly asked. "We are not compatible with hosting your gods, Horus. You know that. And we can certainly not make an Egyptian monster appear out of thin air, nor make a _shabti_ like you Egyptian magicians are capable of doing."

Nobody had an answer to that. I looked at Carter, and he shrugged.

The strangest thing happened next.

I've visited the Duat before, but this was nothing like it. For one, I was not a chicken with the head of me, and the next, I didn't sense the swirling currents that made the Duat up. Instead, everything went black. My knees buckled, and I sank through the confines of the night.

"~*~*~*~*~"

It's rather funny how easily you can forget a trip to Mummy Mountain, even if it's this spirit trip.

Although I was gratified that I wasn't a glowing chicken, it felt strange to be a complete human _ba_, something that I've only achieved once before. And now that I knew that a whole different race of gods existed, I wasn't even sure whether I should call myself a _ba_ at this point.

At any rate, I was being tugged into the supposed 'mountain'. Obviously, that wasn't a good sign if some supernatural force was pulling me into a strange mountain that included the word 'Mummy' in it. I was sure that it didn't actually mean that there were any mummies in it, but one can never be too careful.

**[See, I'm not as reckless as you think!]**

I floated past corridors of rock inscribed with a weird language that looked suspiciously like a cross between English and Worm. Some of the letters were all curly, and it didn't help my growing feeling of discomfort—especially since the words were deeply etched red.

As I ventured deeper within the maze of rock, the more nervous I became. I silently passed several hundreds of the regular Egyptian demons and nasty monsters, but there were plenty that I haven't seen before—a huge giant with one, single, unblinking red eye there, another with a woman's head and two scaly snake trunks here. It was horrifying.

I shivered as I swept passed a black dog that made a skyscraper look small—how the mountain even managed to contain it, I don't know. And then, the most frightening thing that I saw in there was this lady with shimmering yellow snake eyes, holding two long, glowing green, bronze, knives, one of which was crooked. And if that wasn't enough, she had snake hair. Literally. But her lower half was disturbing. Instead of a regular human's—whoa, that sounded plain _wrong_. But you get the point.

She had dragon legs. And where the human torso met the scaly dragon legs was a bubbly surface. It made me want to throw up my breakfast, but I didn't have time to. A huge bear that was wearing Alcatraz sunglasses lashed out of the monster's waist, almost biting my nose off. Then, I remembered that I was only here in spirit, but still… ouch.

I was eager to move out of sight, and hurried past the mutated monster. Luckily, it didn't seem to notice me, but it tromped down the hallway, shaking the foundations of the dripping limestone rock.

After a few more hours of walking in impossible twisty directions, I reached a dead end that was so heavily inscribed with a haze of the strange language that you could barely make out what it used to say. Oh, and I didn't have to mention that all of the words were blood-red, did I?

So I was shocked when the wall shook and trembled. I heard a muffled sound like a despondent sigh behind it.

I pressed my misty ear against the wall of limestone.

"No luck," the same voice murmured. "It's as solid as ever."

"I still don't get how Kronos came back," another voice protested. "How in Hades did he rise from dust?" "It's supposed to be impossible. Any thoughts on that, Nico?"

"Nope," somebody else said. "Not a clue."

"But you're supposed to be an expert on death," the first voice teasingly said.

"I don't know how you can sound so lighthearted when you were bruising your knuckles on the solid wall just five seconds ago," the second voice said, "but along with that, we are imprisoned by the supposed-to-be-deceased Titan Lord of Time."

_Who?_ My spirit self shivered nervously. Kronos, the Titan Lord of Time—I vaguely remembered something about what we learned in school, but after two years at teaching and training at Brooklyn House, I forgot all the obscure little tidbits of school. On a totally different criteria, I wondered how Liz and Emma were doing; the last time I saw them was when we were being chased by Bobby and Neckbutt. Um, correct that, Babi and Nekhbet.

The three anonymous people were talking again.

"Thalia, why couldn't you just bust us out of here? Or Percy?" the Nico person asked.

Okay, maybe not so anonymous. Thalia? Why did that word ring a bell in my head? _Oh, maybe because Jason, Reyna, Annabeth, and Zeus were mentioning her a while ago._

But who was this Percy guy? I recalled Reyna saying something about Annabeth losing her boyfriend, so was that 'Percy' him? I could only wait and see.

But just as Thalia started to respond, I felt the currents of the Duat pulling on me. Maybe I really was a _ba_, but I couldn't feel it.

When I woke up, there were a bunch of people arguing over me. Carter was the first to notice that I was conscious.

"Sadie!" he cried. "Why the heck did you burn half of Manhattan down?"

"I-I d-did _what_? What did you say?"

Reyna propped me up. "Oh, Carter, don't be so hard on her, she just woke up from a three-day coma."

"Three days?" I asked, confused. The trip only seemed like a couple of minutes. How could I have been out for _three days_?

Reyna opened the curtains. Apparently, we were in a hotel—a rather nice one, at any rate. I looked outside and yelped.

I was staring at Central Park, but from the exact middle of it and beyond that point, I saw smoldering ruins. What? Was that me? Did I actually do that? The very thought was unimaginable.

Annabeth sighed. "In your coma, you started murmuring spells of some sort. Isis tried to stop you, but to no avail: in one colossal _boom_… well, we can fix it in a few months."

"Few months?" Reyna frowned.

"No," I said. "A few seconds."

"You're going to burn yourself up," Jaz warned, sensing what I was about to do.

I said, "Well, I'm responsible for this mess. It's only fair that I fix it."

I opened the window, letting a cool breeze waft in. I gathered all of my remaining magical reserves for the spell.

"_Hi-nehm_!" I commanded.

A golden hieroglyph flickered to life, floating on top of the palm of my hand. I gently blew it towards the direction of Central Park.

As soon as the hieroglyph reached its destination, it hovered for a few moments and disappeared with a pop. For a few scary seconds, nothing happened. Then, a golden light rippled further than the eye could see. In an instant, ashes flew together, seamlessly binding themselves into worn-down buildings, gradually rebuilding itself into the other half of Manhattan.

Instantly, after the job was done, my vision went fuzzy, and I blacked out—this time, dissolving into a nightmare that had a single, strange scythe fading in and out of reddish air, the confines of a weakening prison.


	2. έχουμε κάποια Σίσσυ πάλες

Chapter II

**Sadie**

When I woke up, I saw the painted ceiling of my room. Nobody was inside with me, but as I gazed out of the window, I thought that I could see why. It was sunset, high time to have supper.

"Hello?" I croaked, hoping that somebody skipped supper to visit me.

The door blew open and Annabeth bounced in, looking incredibly relieved. "You're awake—again."

"I know," I said dryly, "isn't that outstanding? I should get an A+."

"You just reminded me," Annabeth thoughtfully said. "You woke up within three days. Reyna owes me ten _aurai_. I would prefer drachmas, but they're the same."

"What are _aurai_ and drachmas?" I asked.

"Currency," Annabeth said dismissively. "It's not really important. Well, except for IM-ing, of course, but who cares? I have a whole stash—"

I cleared my throat.

"Sorry, getting off track," Annabeth said.

"Where am I?" I interrupted before Annabeth could draw another breath.

"Olympus," Annabeth replied. Seeing the look on my face, she added, "we transported your hotel room to the infirmary here. Your clothes were smoking with a reddish light in your sleep; we didn't know whether or not to move you. But your brother—Carter, right?"

"Carter," I confirmed.

"Carter was going frantic because you had the red haze around you. Apparently, red is a very bad color in Egypt. Correct me if I'm wrong!"

"Yeah," I agreed. "But why was there a reddish haze?"

Annabeth hesitated a little too long for my taste.

"What?" I demanded.

Annabeth exhaled. She glanced at the closed door, but lowered her voice. "I don't know, Sadie," she muttered, sounding really frustrated that she didn't know. "I'm not sure if anybody else saw this, but I thought that I saw… a snake in the steamy light. And it was holding a… a…."

Annabeth flinched and faltered.

"A what?" I pressed. That snake was sounding suspiciously like an extremely old "friend" of we magicians. But how could have the Lord of Chaos recovered so quickly?

"A scythe," Annabeth murmured. "And that's not good news. The scythe is the symbol of Kronos, the Titan Lord. Percy killed—"

Her posture stiffened and her voice acquired a stiff edge to it.

"Percy killed Kronos, and he was spread throughout the wind. That was about a year ago."

"Ah…" I started. "I had a dream…"

Annabeth snickered. I stared at her. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," she said, attempting to stifle her laughter and epically failing.

"You kidding?" Reyna snorted, entering the room. "She's just thinking about the time Percy said, 'I had a dream…'"

"No, I wasn't!" Annabeth giggled. "I was thinking how Sadie would have been an excellent stunt double for Martin Luther King Junior!"

"You are racist," Reyna said with a teasing note in her voice.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Jason entered the room, looking at the two quarreling sisters. "We could hear you from a mile away," he said.

Oblivious to Jason's well-reasoned comment, Annabeth and Reyna continued arguing loudly.

He muttered something like "dynamite". Was he quoting the song "Dynamite"? Unlikely. It didn't seem like Jason had ever touched a CD featuring Cruz's songs.

Something barreled in through the window, missing Annabeth by nanometers. The girl who had just been unceremoniously plopped straight in front of Jason grumbled and brushed off her clothes. "I did _not_ ask for instant traveling to Olympus, Mercury! I said—wait, just where in Teritus am I?"

"Gosh, Hazel," Jason mockingly gasped. "We're on Olympus!"

Hazel heavily scowled at Jason. She had long black hair tied up in a ponytail, sea-green eyes, and had an annoyed expression on her face at the moment. Her appearance triggered a memory from Brooklyn House, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it.

"I know that," Hazel irritably said. "Where am I?"

"Olympus," Jason insisted.

"No, where am I?"

"You're in a magically transported hotel room that is currently hovering over a billion yards in the air," I suggested.

"Okay," Hazel said, a little less disgruntled. "Thanks for the rather… straight answer. Who are you?"

Reyna yelled something about elephants being gray, and Annabeth said that giraffes are green when something that Reyna mentioned happened.

Hazel raised an eyebrow. "I see that they are in one of their weekly arguments," she sardonically said.

"More like hourly," Jason muttered under his breath.

"Um…" I said. It was a lovely way to introduce myself, no? "Er, I'm… Sadie Kane?"

"Never heard of you before," Hazel said. "But whatever."

Jason frowned at her visible lack of hospitality and seemed to be about to make a scathing remark when Hazel cut him off.

"Wait a moment," she said, looking suspiciously at my face. "Why do I think—oh, gods. I do know you. How…"

I studied her features and the vision hit me like a bowling ball.

"I know you," we both said at the same time.

"Don't be ridiculous," Reyna called from where she was arguing, "how—"

"—could you possibly—" Annabeth interjected.

"—know—"

"—Hazel?"

Hazel pressed her lips together. I just stared at her. "You… you..."

"What, did you really expect that I was a normal magician, Sadie? After I nearly drowned the whole training room in water?"

"But you…" I lamely started. "You left."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "No," she said. "I didn't."

It was very hard to miss the sarcasm in her voice.

Jason rounded on her. "So _that's_ why you were missing all the time? Five years, Hazel! And you still didn't tell me?"

"Oh, Sparky," Hazel tiredly said. "Please, shut up. Even Lupa didn't know. Why should I have told you, Jason?"

Carter entered the room. Before I could stop him, he threw his arms around me. "Sadie! Are you all…"

"Yes, dear brother," I squeaked through his clothes, as they were smothering me. "Now, will you please get off of me? I need some oxygen."

To prove my point, I pretended to draw a breath and failed (exaggerated, of course).

Carter got off of me. "Really, Sadie, are you all right?"

"Yes," I insisted. "See? I survived with both pairs of arms and legs and various other body parts and I'm not a pile of ashes, no?"

"But you had that red foggy light around you," Carter faintly said.

"I've heard," I said, "from Annabeth." I motioned towards the still-arguing Reyna and Annabeth. "Seems that they can never stop fighting," I added.

"That's true," Jason said, "but at least they have a grudging respect with each other."

"What's up with the scythe?" I asked suddenly.

"Um…" Carter said. He thought for a moment as Jason and Hazel looked at him in surprise. He snapped his fingers. "I think that it was the symbol of that Titan Lord dude, right? Cronus?"

Hazel shifted. "Well… I don't think that you should really refer to Saturn as 'Cronus', it's the other Greek term. Saturn is the Roman form for 'Kronos'."

"What's the difference?" Carter asked a little anguished.

"_Cronus_," Hazel started, "is the actual _manifestation _of time itself. Not even remotely so, real interesting. But _Kronos_, that's a more interesting name. See—"

"I confused," I piped in.

"I didn't even finish explaining!" Hazel exasperatedly said. Shaking her head and dropping her voice to a murmur, she said, "Still the same Sadie as ever."

"I know, right?" Carter babbled. "She's impossible."

Hazel ignored him. "Kronos is the destructive aspect of time itself, so—"

"Does that mean that Kronos, the destructive aspect of time will give you wrinkles and liver spots?" I interrupted again. Surprisingly, Carter asked that at the same time as I did.

Hazel and Jason both looked thoughtful. "I've never looked at it from that point," Jason said, as if my comment was a very sincere one. "But I guess to certain people that could be very true indeed."

"You sound like a geek," Hazel said.

"Says the person who is geekier than me," Jason said.

"Hey! _I'm_ not the one who hangs around Reyna or Annabeth too much! Much less the whole Minerva and Athena cabin combined!"

Jason's cheeks colored. "I do not! Besides, _you_ were the one giving the 'lecture' on the difference between 'Cronus' and 'Kronos'!"

"You so do! You could have given the lecture as well! It was an equally likely chance!" Hazel argued. Pretty soon, there were two sets of arguing demigods in my room. It was giving me a severe migraine, which never happens to Egyptian magicians.

"Carter," I tiredly asked, "could you ferret them out of my room? They're giving me a headache."

"Sure thing, Sadie the Great," Carter chuckled.

"What? No, don't call me that, chicken man!" I said, deeply offended. As I mentioned before, "Sadie the Great" does not have a particularly nice ring to it, unlike "Ramesess the Great".

Carter wisely did not respond as he pushed the two pairs of squabbling demigods out of my room.

"~*~*~*~*~"

After a few more days in bed with a lot of cursing, begging, and threatening, I was finally able to escape the confines of my room. Unfortunately, I was still very lightheaded, so the first time I stepped out of bed, I nearly collapsed on the ground again. My legs seemed to have forgotten how to function properly.

"How can you stand this?" Hazel asked one day when she and I were talking after I almost fell flat on my face (Carter insisted that I go back to bed before I crushed my nose).

"Stand what?" I asked unconsciously, trailing my finger through the remains of a crushed ice cube.

"Stand staying in bed all day?" she said, a hint of frustration in her voice. "As I recall, I couldn't sleep past five o' clock in Brooklyn House. I couldn't stand the room."

Seeing the surprised look on my face, she added, "Not because of the luxury—that part was totally sweet. But it was so… _confined_ there. I felt like if I couldn't get out of the room and get some fresh air, I would blow up into dust."

I paused in my swirling through the icy slush on the walnut table. "Stand it? Problem is, Hazel, I _can't_ stand it."

She blinked. "But you're acting so…"

I laughed bitterly. "Calm? Calm? I want to bust this whole place apart. It's so boring—all that you can see in this bloody hotel room is flowery wallpaper, a plush carpet, and more flowery wallpaper. I spend at least two hours of my day staring out the window at the ground, or if there are clouds, I stare meaninglessly at the clouds."

"Fun," Hazel chuckled.

"Lots of fun," I agreed dryly.

She offered me her hand. "Come on. Let's get you out of this blasted room."

I slipped out of bed and vanished into the bathroom, hurriedly showering and slapping on a set of linen robes.

Hazel eyed me as I went out of the bathroom. "I forgot how silly we looked in those clothes."

"True," I said.

"Wear cotton," Hazel suggested, tugging on her shirtsleeve. Smirking, she reached into thin air and her hand disappeared.

"What?" I asked disbelievingly as she tugged out her staff and wand out of the Duat. **(A.N./ Do you guys think whether or not she should have a **_**khopesh**_** or a staff?)**

"You still know how to do that?"

"Yes," she said.

I stared. "I'm still _rubbish_ at doing that trick!"

Hazel shrugged as she shook the staff vigorously, probably trying to shake the dry magic to existence. She hadn't used it for a long time, trust me.

Her efforts were rewarded when a thin strand of fire shot out of the end of the falcon-headed staff, sending up a slight smoke plume. It spluttered out of existence as soon as it reached the carpet. Hazel ground her teeth. "Water… I was never good with fire spells."

She spun around and walked towards the door, holding the door open for me.

Trotting outside of the room, I found out that I was in a giant courtyard. There were statues of this muscular man with a cruel face and a double-bladed sword. There were statues of a really beautiful lady, although all of that beauty looked like it came from make-up.

"Wow…" I said, drinking in my surroundings, "and the salad bar is totally awesome!"

**[Well, Aphrodite didn't blast me, so I think that I'm well off. And no need to get a big head, Annabeth. **_**Slapping in the background with a sound that suspiciously sounded like a pig grunting.**_**]**

"Who designed this?"

Hazel opened her mouth and then closed it, nodding at the approaching figure of Annabeth.

"She what?"

"Well, it's hardly a surprise," Hazel said lightly. "She was appointed the Architect of Olympus after the Second Titan War."

"I know, right?" Annabeth cheerily asked. It was the best mood I've ever seen her in.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Jason and Reyna popped out of nowhere, frightening Annabeth out of her wits.

"Well," Hazel chuckled, "now she's not. Because of you two."

It was true—Annabeth had turned back into an angry girl.

"The only reason I came here was—" Annabeth started icily. She never got a chance to finish, for Jason, Reyna, and Hazel exchanged glances.

"P-P-PAH!" Annabeth spat water out of her mouth, drenching the ground in front of her.

Hazel tapped the empty container that she had brought from the Duat. "Time to go!"

All three of them took off, laughing like maniacs on a sugar high. Come to think of it, where did all of my chocolate go?

Annabeth looked like she had been hit by a tidal wave. "Where *_cough*_ are tho— _*cough, cough*_ those freak— _*cough*_ freaking R-R— _*cough, cough, cough*_ Roman demi— _*cough, cough*_ demigods?"

I ducked as Hazel sent a water balloon flying at Annabeth.

"_Agh_!" Annabeth yelled in perfect Khufu-speak. "That's it! Two can play at that game!"

Annabeth jumped behind a statue of the buff guy and suddenly, a bunch of water balloons (twenty-six to be exact) hurtled towards the Romans. They got, like Annabeth, drenched.

A couple more splattered on their heads as two more people appeared behind a statue of the Tommy Bermuda guy.

I was sure that it was going to become a full-fledged water balloon fight, so guess what I did?

You got it. I joined in with Annabeth.

Instantly, four paintballs splattered against Annabeth, as Reyna had locked and loaded a double-barrel paintball gun. Annabeth was a lovely shade of bright green, shot through with veins of flamingo pink and snowy white.

Carter appeared in the midst and instantly got his new T-shirt ruined as a couple of water balloons and paintballs hit him. I wasn't looking much better. My highlights were ruined by watery blue-magenta paint. I decided that I was going to take a shower as soon as this awesome fight ended.

"Ha!" Annabeth shouted as she snatched something out of midair. "Beat this!"

Lobbing the updated-by-Annabeth smoke bomb at the Romans, they disappeared in a colorful mist. I could hear loud wheezing and coughing from inside.

"Unfair!" Jason gasped as the smoke hit him. "Modified Misty Snaking Tendrils of Doom are unfair!"

"What?" Annabeth asked. She cocked her head as he started coughing and sneezing. "You're making that up. Just what exactly are these 'Modified Misty Snaking Tendrils of Doom'?"

I threw a particularly full balloon with "water" in it. But the real, sad truth? When nobody was looking, I had magically transmitted all of our ammunition in the balloons to paintball-paint and mud.

Laughing like a water buffalo on a sugar high, one of Annabeth's teammates lobbed a whole pile of feather bombs at the smoky interior. I heard a sneeze.

A trio of feather-coated creatures staggered out of the mist. You could still see their faces, though.

Hazel snickered at Annabeth. "Nice try, Owl-head."

Annabeth only had time to look confused before a bunch of sharply tweeting fish assaulted her. The first thing that I thought was that fish didn't tweet. That's when a whole bucketful of them "pounced" on me.

"Fish?" Annabeth spluttered, looking completely bemused. She slapped away one of the slimy, wriggling things. "Fish, Hazel? I think that you have lost your brain."

"Fish," she said smugly, picking off the feathers. "And I still have my brain! Oh, this is boring."

A rumble reverberated through my feet, and I jumped up as the giant shower of rain swept through the hall. Of course, all I got was a pounding of unrelenting rain drops for my efforts.

"Pah!" Annabeth glared at Hazel. "Stop it!"

Of course, Hazel being Hazel, she didn't stop. Come to think of it, I didn't even know how in Ra's name she even _did_ it. It's not something that we teach at Brooklyn House.

Carter, who had been standing there all the while, stunned, suddenly had a change of heart. He screamed, "CARAMEL APPLE FIGHT!"

Instantly, a basket full of perfect caramel apples dropped onto both sides, including me. I was never going to get the sticky golden-brown earwax-colored stuff out of my hair.

"Carter!" I moaned, tossing aside a stray apple. I shook my hand as the caramel stuck to it. "What was that for?"

Carter shrugged. "Well, it was about time that I have some fun. You can't have all of it, Sadie!"

I was fuming, but I could hardly summon an exploding donkey on his head, could I? And I wasn't about to babble his secret name either—it wouldn't be the most comfortable experience for him, and before you knew it, Hazel would be abusing the use of it. She's absolutely awesome in that way.

Okay, maybe not so much that I "care" about him, but I _had_ to tease him once in a while, no? Wait, I've been teasing him ever since Annabeth and Reyna came to pick us up. I do seem to owe an apology to that guy.

**[Sorry. There, Carter. See, I care about you! Isn't that so sweet? ]**

"Sweeeeeeet!" Jason yelled plucking an apple that was about to land on his head.

"You are not seriously going to eat that," Annabeth said.

"Who says that I wouldn't?" Jason cheerfully asked, taking a huge bit out of the apple. "Beo' yors sinc I ha' canky!"

"It's been years since you had cranky?" Hazel asked with a bemused look on her face.

"No, no, no," Reyna said, frowning at Jason. "He means that it's been years since he had candy."

"What?" Hazel looked outraged now. "You little—you didn't—_YOU HAD CANDIED APPLES AND A DOUBLE-DECKER CHUNKY CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM SUNDAE THIS MORNING, YOU THICK-HEADED BUFOON!_"

"Was it any good?" Carter and Annabeth asked anxiously. Why they were worried about some ice-cream and candied apples, I don't know.

Reyna and Hazel glared at the unfortunate son of… what's-his-name, Zu—Jepu—Jupeus guy. I hope that I got it right, which I probably didn't.

And in the midst of the confusion, someone cackled. A lady in a black T-shirt dropped in the middle of the chaos. "What fun! Feuding families—again! That's what happens when you have too much luck, busters!"

"Oh, Nemesis," Jason said tiredly while shooting a final glance at the glaring Reyna and Hazel. "First off, you've got the 'feuding families' part wrong. We were just… um, having a very _friendly_ game of Blackjack."

He looked around, daring anyone to contradict her. Annabeth got a really skeptical look on her face and seemed to mouth, _Can you have a better… I don't know, _excuse_ for that? And since when have you used the Greek name of the goddess of revenge?_

I had no idea whatsoever what a "goddess of revenge" was, but I supposed that she was a goddess of revenge. Isn't that so logical of me?

The Nemesis/goddess of revenge lady looked around. "Hmm… I don't seem to see a deck of cards or the son of _Poseidon_'s—" She said the word _Poseidon_ as if it was a nasty swear word—"black pegasus."

_Neeeeigh_! Nemesis disappeared in a _poof_ of black feathers as a very confused-looking black flying horse landed on the lady.

"And second," Jason said as if he hadn't heard a thing, "since when did you ever use the word 'busters'?"

Nemesis appeared, looking very disgruntled by the fact that she had been upstaged by a flying pony. "What? There's nothing wrong with me using the word 'buster', right?"

"Um…" I said.

Nemesis caught sight of me and she broke out into a wicked smile. Her teeth were so bright that you could have lit up the dark side of Khonsu (the moon god whom I have come to hate) —meaning taking away his "cannibalistic" instincts—with it.

"Well, son of Jupiter," she said. Oh… it was "Jupiter".

"Hey!" a voice cut through and a guy in a white T-shirt that said: _I'M LIKE THE SUN GOD!_ popped up. "It's 'Zeus'!"

Or was it Zeus? And what sort of weird person wears a T-shirt that has the word "_I AM AN IDIOT_" emblazoned all over it?

"Apollo!" Nemesis groaned. "He was _sired_ by Jupiter! Now, back to the feuding family with bad luck—"

"No problem-o!" Apollo gave a smile that was even more dazzling then Nemesis's. "With luck, old buddy—"

"Well, you're a heck of a lot older than me!" Nemesis yelled. "And who are you calling _buddy_?"

"—it's time for a haiku!" Apollo said delightfully.

"NO!" Hazel and Reyna yelled. "Don't start—"

Jason, Annabeth, Reyna, and Hazel all clasped their ears.

"Ah, come on, kiddos!" Apollo smiled brightly again. "My haikus aren't _that_ bad!"

"LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA—"

"La-La Land!" Apollo said in delight. He rubbed his hands together with glee. "This is my lucky day!"

La-La Land? This guy—um, _god_—was seriously out of touch with the adult world. La-La Land—I didn't even know what sort of "land" it was. Somewhere where you sing the words "la-la" all day long.

All four demigods exchanged awkward glances. Reyna un-clasped her ears. "Um, Lord Apollo… are you sure you're all right?"

"Oh, I'm amazing today!" Apollo smiled again. Nemesis tip-toed behind the god and made a _cuckoo _motion with her hand.

"But thanks for asking!" Apollo spread his arms broadly. Then, he craned his neck as the goddess who had told the oily dude off appeared.

"Little sister—!" Apollo started. The goddess glared. "Apollo, for the last and _final_ time: I'm not your little sister!"

"But I'm older!" Apollo protested. The goddess scoffed. "Actually," she shot back, "I do not know what drove me to help our mother give birth to you!"

Apollo shook his head vigorously. "Now, now, Artemis. Don't be—"

"Just what in Styx are you telling me now? I'm _not_ making dance moves to the Chicken Dance—ask Aphrodite!"

Reyna muttered something that suspiciously sounded like: "I sense a one-way sissy fight coming along the road!"

Carter made gagging motions behind her back.

The goddess, Artemis rolled her eyes. "All right, daughter of Athena—I mean, Minerva, I'm not sure that the correct word to describe it would be 'sissy fight'."

Reyna blushed and studied the sticky ground. She, Hazel, and Jason were still covered in mud, feathers, and what suspiciously looked like a two-headed salamander.


	3. Χειρότερη Family Ρεϊνιόν ποτέ

**I know that Animal Charmer 11 must be disappointed when she notices who the PoV of this chapter is, and (this is directed straight towards her and her only), I'll definitely post Carter's PoV as soon as one more chapter of Percy's is done. Sorry, but I want to let you know what's happening while Sadie is desperately to wash the caramel and paint out of her hair.**

**Thanks to all of my reviewers! WOO-HOO, NINE REVIEWS FOR TWO CHAPTERS (THAT'S THE MOST I'VE EVER HAD FOR TWO CHAPTERS, WHICH IS RATHER SAD)!**

Chapter III

**Percy**

I was going out of my mind with annoyance.

"Pinecone Face!" I yelled, fed up with the unyielding muttering, "will you please _shut up_?"

"Huh?" Thalia looked around cluelessly and kicked the wall in frustration. "What?"

"Percy said shut up," Nico replied, fiddling with some pieces of stone.

Thalia raised an eyebrow somewhat distantly. "Did he, now?"

By now, I had just enough sense and sanity left to comprehend the fact that there was something seriously wrong with Thalia. Usually, when someone called her "Pinecone Face"—regardless of who it is—she wouldn't rest until she was sure that that person (or god—it's happened before… poor Apollo) would be knocked out for at least a week straight.

Nico, who was apparently having the same thoughts as I was, looked up uncertainly and stared at Thalia. "Um… are you sure you're all right?"

Thalia was on him like a whirlwind, her eyes blazing and icy at the same time. Glaring at Nico, she snapped, "You have the nerve to ask if I'm _all right_?"

"Whoa," I intervened, "Thalia, Nico was just trying to—"

Thalia turned her glare onto me. I felt like my clothes were smoking, which wasn't good. "Stay out of this, _Seaweed Brain_."

I shot to my feet. "Bring it on, _Pinecone Face_."

Nico made a sound that was halfway between a groan and a whimper as Thalia reached into her pocket and snatched her spear out of thin air. That was the only good thing about being locked in a magic-proof prison by the "deceased" Titan lord: he forgot to disarm us.

I pulled Riptide from my pocket and uncapped the magic pen.

Nico stood up. "We're kind of in a confined space," he said nervously. "What if you lop each other's heads?"

"He has the Achilles' Curse," Thalia snapped. "Come to think of it, I must be crazy if I think that I can harm him."

Thalia just called herself crazy. The world is ending! Then, I realized that I had forgotten to tell her that I _lost_ my Achilles' Curse as soon as I finished my first quest for _Castra Romana_. Oops.

Nico just had to bust one of my advantages over Thalia by saying, "Percy lost his Achilles' Curse after he finished going to this place in the Sothern Hemisphere. I think that it was really icy."

"No duh," I muttered. "It's what you get after chasing after Gaea's army with Hazel and Frank."

Thalia snorted with derision. "Uh huh."

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and it pretty much blasted the chances of me winning by half. "Why don't you slash at me, then? I would get a cut, you know."

It was the stupidest comment of all time, even by my standards. Thalia held out her spear. "Okay, then, Jackson. You asked for it."

"Percy!" Nico groaned as I rolled under Thalia's first swipe. "Why in Hades did you say that?"

"Um…" I grunted as I hacked downwards at Thalia, "I have absolutely no idea."

We sparred for a couple more minutes without either of us gaining the upper hand. It was incredibly annoying.

"JUST SUBMIT, WILL YOU?" I bellowed after about twenty minutes of fighting my head off. My blows were getting weaker and weaker, but so was Thalia's.

Thalia was bright red and drenched with sweat (can Hunters sweat?) but her eyes weren't any less fierce, intimidating, blue, or full of fire—which told me that she wasn't going to give up anytime soon. After knocking aside another of my slashes, she spat, "You told me to try and cut you, and try and cut you I will!"

After that, she just pressed harder and harder. I decided not to open my big mouth from now on.

**[Shut it, Thalia! Just because I said that I have a big mouth doesn't mean that I could swallow a whole school of fish! _A sound of sneezing and laughing from the background._ Ow—Sadie, what was that for?]**

Nico unsuccessfully tried to stop us from fighting, but all he got was a red mark and a bruise on the cheek and forehead when Thalia glared at him, got even madder at him, and smacked him. A second later, I stumbled and accidently bashed the butt of my sword on his forehead.

"Gods, Nico," I stammered. "I'm sorry—oh, Styx!"

The last part was because Thalia took that moment to knock Riptide out of my hands. I let loose with pretty much everything I had.

Thalia was breathing hard, and was still glaring at me. Then, she lowered her spear. "Maybe next time, you'll be _paying attention_ and it would have been a fair match."

I spluttered. "I _was_ paying attention!"

Thalia cleared her throat loudly and pointedly looked at my bronze sword. It was dented on one side. No, blast that, it was dented on _both_ sides.

"Hey!" I yelled at her. "You dented Riptide!"

"Technically," she said, "I didn't. You hammered me so hard in the beginning that it was, like, cutting grooves in _my_ spearhead too!"

She indicated to the polished Celestial bronze spearhead. It was dented as badly as Riptide's was.

"I didn't even _know_ that Celestial bronze could dent," I complained.

"It can't." Thalia eyed me accusingly. "It was because _some_ sons of Poseidon can't control their temper!"

"Well, then it was just as much of your fault as it is mine!" I yelled.

Nico woozily sat up. "Huh?"

Thalia glared at me. "Excuse me?"

"You're kind of known for your incredibly short temper," Nico giggled. He must have been insane to say that.

"Nico," I said, "that was an incredibly _stupid_ thing to say."

But Thalia just raised an eyebrow. "Oh, jeez," she said sarcastically. "You think I didn't know that?"

Her hand, however, turned stark white as she clenched her spear shaft. It was as if, dented or not, she was going to run Nico and me through any second now. My statement was proved when Thalia snarled, "_Hanjoid de thanster, ki ides feolk!_"

Apparently, the "magic-proof" prison wasn't really magic-proof, because a huge iceberg surrounded Nico right then and there.

"Thalia!" I said, shocked. "Why did you freeze him?"

"You can un-freeze him if you want," she snapped, glaring at me. "You know the spell."

"You would just freeze me," I objected.

She pondered over my statement. "I suppose I would, but that left me drained." She was certainly paler than she was before.

"Why?"

"I bet that if you tried it, you would be devoid of your reserves too. When was the last time you casted a spell like that?"

I stayed silent.

"Exactly," Thalia said as if I had said something.

I muttered a curse and the counter spell under my breath. Nico crashed down in a cascade of ice shards and water, shivering.

"N-n-not c-c-co-cool a-a-at a-all, Th-Th-Thal-Thalia!" Nico chattered. "W-why d-did y-y-you d-d-d-do t-t-that?"

I suppose that it was apt for him to be shivering after spending a minute in an iceberg straight from Antarctica, but he was chattering so much that was speech was almost intelligible.

"Oh, great," I complained while glaring at Thalia, who was slumped against a stone wall, staring at it. "Just look what you did! Now he's going to get hypothermia, and it's all your fault—"

Thalia whipped around, glaring back at me. "You know that he isn't going to get hypothermia, Fish Breath!"

"I do?"

Thalia bit her lip. I could tell that she was trying really hard not to jump up and strangle me. "Yes, you do," she shot back. "You heard _perfectly_ well that I embedded the spell with no side effects other than extreme cold! Which means you can't get anything like hypothermia or all that blasted stuff! You really think that I would kill him?"

I couldn't argue with that. I glanced over at Nico, who was still shivering, but it was considerably less prominent.

Just then, one of the walls faded. I jumped up, groping for Riptide. Then, I just had to remember that it got dented.

Thalia, meanwhile, resumed staring expressionlessly at the wall as a guy in leather armor with a hooked sword strapped to his belt wordlessly shoved in a girl in a tattered shirt and pants. The wall materialized again as soon as the girl stumbled inside.

Running over—um, more like shuffling—to the girl, I knelt beside her. "Are you okay?"

I winced at how stupid that sounded. Of course she wasn't "okay". She looked as if she had been dragged through a minefield, a muddy pit full of rattlesnakes, and laundry that hadn't been washed in a week in one hour and then left in a garbage dump.

Glancing dully up at me, she put her head in her hands.

"Um… what's your name?"

"You're insane, Percy," Thalia and Nico said at the same time.

"Why?" I demanded angrily.

"'Cause you already know me," the mystery girl muttered.

"I do?"

"That's the second time that you said 'I do'," Thalia grumbled. "Is that your new favorite two words? Would you like to become the President of the whole world?"

"I only said it two times," I objected. "And, as I said to Annabeth before, me running the world would be kind of a nightmare."

Thalia didn't even bother to answer as her finger trailed across a red hieroglyphic that was inscribed on the wall.

Nico jumped in. "Hello, Percy? You still there?"

"Uh… yeah…"

The girl was muttering unintelligibly under her breath.

"Jay? That name ring a bell in your head?"

"Isn't that—?"

Thalia rolled her eyes as she paused to look at me. "Nobody cares if it's usually a boy's name," she snapped. "Do you know her? Her appearance should ring a bell in your head."

Either I was really behind in current events, or I really was a "Seaweed Brain" as Annabeth always called me.

"Sorry," I said, wincing, "but I don't know."

"Oh, just… forget it," Thalia said. "Hopeless."

She resumed tracing the red figures again, frowning as she examined them. As if she could read them.

This "Jay" girl that I still didn't remember lifted her head up and stared at me with blue eyes that were almost exactly like Thalia's. That's when it hit me.

"Oh, not y—um, hi!" I remembered my manners at the last moment, cringing.

Great. Now, I had _two_ feisty daughters of Zeus to deal with. Could my life get any worse? But the weird thing was, we met her in the time period in the Civil War (long story; don't ask), so how the heck was she still alive, unless she was a Hunter of Artemis and she was about two-hundred years old. It didn't look like it, though. Besides, neither Artemis nor Thalia had ever mentioned her, unless Thalia was pulling another one of her "oh-of-course-I-don't-have-a-brother-shut-up-before-I-punch-your-lights-out" things. Sadly, I doubted it.

Jay took a moment to glare at Thalia—trust me, there's _very_ bad history between them, _don't_ make me get into it (maybe I'll tell you sometime later)—, who still absolutely refused to look at we three unimportant demigods, and sighed. "Remind me to never be a Hunter of Artemis, an even stupider Hunter of Diana, or Vestal Virgin. The future is too weird."

"That is," Nico reminded her, "if you ever get back to 1864!"

"Thanks for being so optimistic," Jay said, rolling her eyes. She batted away a falling pebble. "Even the ceiling is being so nice to me today."

Thalia broke out of her stupor and glared at Jay for mentioning that. Jay was still innocently rolling the small gray pebble under her palm. I didn't know what kind of relationship Thalia had with the ceiling, so don't ask me.

"If there's anybody who can even read these—" Thalia said something so bad that I'm not sure if I should repeat it, "—hieroglyphics, then can they appear out of midair and say what they mean?"

**[Yes, you were right, Carter. The next time Thalia says something like that; I should douse her in gasoline and boot her off the Chrysler Building. _*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*_]**

Nothing happened.

"Thanks for your help," Thalia acidly said to no one in particular. "Thanks a lot, whoever-the-Egyptian-god-of-magic-is."

The walls suddenly erupted in red light around us, bathing the whole prison in the eerie glow. On the walls, the etched in hieroglyphics shined fiercely, burning like the sun.

"All right," I said, "just what did you do?"

"What did I do?" Thalia furiously asked. "_What did I do_? It's obvious that I just accidently lit up the room with the shiny hieroglyphics!"

"Yes," Nico said, "but you were saying something about the Egyptian god of magic."

"More like 'goddess'," Jay mumbled. When Thalia, Nico, and I stared at her, she raised her palms. "What? Don't look at me; I'm just an innocent bystander!"

The very ground beneath our feet blazed, tracing a single hieroglyph over and over again. Underneath the repeating hieroglyphic was the translation in English: _Isfet_. At this point, I didn't even want to know what this "Isfet" thing meant.

The wall faded again, and the same guy in leather armor marched stiffly in. In a dead voice, he intoned, "You two come with me."

He pointed at me and Thalia.

Thalia didn't even look up as she stood up and wordlessly walked towards to the weird guy. Not wanting to aggravate the guy, I followed Thalia's example and followed the guy into a long corridor that was inscribed with, now, Ancient Greek. I noticed Thalia reading them, and as she continued, her eyes got narrower and narrower until they were barely slits.

Following her gaze, I read the inscription.

_I, Kronos, pledge myself to the Lord of Chaos, Apophis, and hereby promise to provide him with…_ so on, so forth. A bunch of meaningless blather. But then, a line caught my eye. Glancing over at Thalia, she had averted her glance and was staring straight ahead. That inscription didn't look so good: _…and the god of lightning has joined our cause, and will provide Apophis with the troops necessary to overthrow the blasted Kane children and Olympus…_

Why this oath was inscribed on the walls of some tomb mountain, I don't know, but Zeus joining Kronos? That was about as likely as a Munchlax throwing away all his food (I don't know, some sort of fat Pokémon that absolutely loves to eat).

The guy stopped and pushed us into a dirt-packed arena. Thalia stumbled, and I caught her.

"Thanks," she muttered, but gave no more sign of recognition for me helping to catch her. So much for being courteous.

This reminded me painfully and uncomfortably of Antaeus's Arena, since there was an equal amount of cheering nasties and an equal—if not more—numbers of skulls smiling grotesquely from the ceiling, human an inhuman.

"You," the guy said, "ladies first."

Thalia opened her mouth, probably asking what in Hades she was about to do when the part of the arena that was used for battles burst into flame. Once the fire cleared out, a person in full gladiator gear was standing there, armor fresh and gleaming. By the person's side lay a rectangular black and red shield with a sickle emblazoned on it which the person picked up while drawing a spear. The person then turned towards the crowd, who gave a loud roar of approval, then turning to us and jeering and throwing random stuff. Thalia had to duck as a flying pig flew over her head and I jumped over a desperately squeaking guinea pig (it brought back bad memories).

The gladiator then turned towards Thalia, seemingly staring at her until the guy in leather pushed her towards the fighting circle.

Just before he did so, I whispered in her ear, "Good luck." Whether she heard it or not was a mystery, but Thalia was jostled out of my sight, pushed to the ring by the guy.

I could only pray that Thalia wouldn't be chopped into bits while she drew her weapon, but before I knew it, the gladiator was on her in a moment.

For a terrifying moment, there was a splattering of red liquid on the ground. I was turning as white as snow and biting my nails as if there was no tomorrow. I stopped at once, but the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth as I started chewing my tongue.

The audience howled with glee and cheered.

Thalia had a long and deep gash on her left arm that was spraying blood droplets everywhere when she moved it, and was still crying rivulets of the red liquid when it was still.

"Oh…" I groaned.

Thalia was pasty pale, as she should be after the loss of so much blood. I knew that now, using her bow and arrows were out of the picture of being used, since she could hardly grasp the smooth silver bow with that blood running down her arm, and she could only use one knife if she chose to use that. But if she used her spear, that wouldn't have been a great idea either, because spears take power to wield. It looked like a gust of wind could blow Thalia off her feet now.

I couldn't help myself. "THALIA!" I screamed started to run for the ring. A pair of strong hands held me back.

"Time for you to fight later," the guy in leather armor rumbled.

I couldn't shake myself from his grasp, since his hands were like iron as I struggled desperately to escape.

Thalia reached for the gladiator with her bloodied arm. I didn't even know what she was doing. The gladiator looked confused to, as the person slowly backed away. Once Thalia got within two feet, she lunged and started a game of tag around the arena.

They scrambled over boulders, loose rocks, and all sorts of barriers. How Thalia was running like this while rapidly losing blood was a mystery to me.

I found myself struggling even harder against the vice-like grip of the guy but to no avail. He just held on tighter, and I got pins-and-needles in both of my arms. No, they were numb as well. I couldn't feel anything but the stinging/tickling sensation that was pricking my lower arms and hands.

Meanwhile, Thalia and the gladiator were still chasing each other. The crowd was screaming now; something about getting chocolate-covered candies when the gladiator killed Thalia. Hopefully, that wasn't going to happen.

Thalia put on a burst of speed and grabbed the helmet of the gladiator with her good hand. Sweating with the effort, she yanked the helmet off of the gladiator, and I couldn't believe my eyes.

_Look again,_ my brain prompted. It was like viewing Olympus for the first time all over again.

_We are looking,_ my eyes insisted. _He's really there!_

Thalia stumbled back with surprise and almost lost her footing. I could just hear her snarl with disgust, "You."

For where the helmetless gladiator was standing was Luke.

"~*~*~*~*~"

Thalia didn't even wait to tell Luke off. "YOU BETRAYED US _AGAIN,_ YOU—!"

"Don't curse, Thalia," Luke said.

Thalia was breathing hard. "Shut up, you excuse of a demigod! Don't tell me to 'not curse' when you're just… just…"

She lunged towards him, but Luke just sidestepped and let Thalia rocket past him.

Luke's mouth curled into a wicked sneer. "Come on. You've got to do better than that!"

My mouth was still hanging open like an ajar door.

I knew that Thalia would never kill Luke in cold blood. She was still too attached to the memories of the times when she was running around with Annabeth and Luke. She would probably—no, she would _definitely_ show amnesty no matter what she shouted at him.

Luke, on the other hand… I don't know. For one, he sacrificed himself to kill Kronos, but now, he was back in all his former cold-bloodedness, injuring Thalia, his best friend for about two years without a second thought.

"Oh, this is so exciting," I heard a girl in black combat fatigues whisper to a boy next to her. "This is so suspenseful!"

I glared at them, and was considering to lop their heads off, but the numbness/stinging sensation of my hands told me that the guy still hadn't let go.

Thalia probably knew that she couldn't beat Luke with brute force, which meant that she would have to resort to some sort of trickery.

Luke gripped Thalia's bad arm, squeezing. I dully wondered what Annabeth would make of the situation.

Thalia was as pale as snow now—not exaggerating, I'm serious—but her hand was creeping towards her pocket.

She raised her right hand and snatched Luke's free hand and then let go, leaving an imprint behind. In a split second, I knew what she was about to do.

My lips twitched as they slowly fashioned themselves into a smile.

Luke had a bemused look on his face.

In a flash, Thalia had reached into her pocket, wrenched out of Luke's grasp (but not without a gasp of pain) and slammed the butt of her spear against Luke's right wrist. Even dented by the force of our recent fight, the butt of her spear was an effective weapon. I heard a _crack_ resonate through the stadium as Luke, his face white with pain, crumpled on to the floor, holding his broken wrist.

Thalia stared at him and dropped her spear and collapsed next to him, but she was literally lying in a pool of blood.


	4. Σφαιρίδια από Αιθήρ

**Ouch... this was a really short chapter. But I can't post for a long time (I think) because I'm going to a sleep away camp that has strict Internet rules (no going on unless you have staff supervision). I'm not sure whether they'll let me on Fanfiction, but if they do, I think that you can expect the chapter next week or so (I'll be there for about three... I think). Anyways, happy reading! PLEASE REVIEW! XD XD!**

Chapter IV

**Percy**

I have to admit, that was totally unexpected. Even the crowd was stunned for a moment as they surveyed the two collapsed demigods.

The only difference was that Luke was still conscious but in desperate pain, and Thalia was unconscious and in desperate pain—if not more. So it's obvious who had the better bargain. As much as I now despised him, I'd sooner be Luke than Thalia, lying there helplessly on the ground while she bled to death.

I thrashed even harder against the confines of the guy's arms. "Let me go!"

His face was expressionless as he kept on holding on to me. "I told you," he growled, "time for you to fight later… after the girl dies."

"What?" That statement just made me wriggle harder.

Luke had apparently managed to get over his confusion and staggered up, his right hand flopping uselessly by his side. Grimacing, he stumbled over to his sword, the newly re-forged Backbiter. Just the sight of the sword filled me with rage, but there was no water near me—or, for that face, within five hundred miles of Mummy Mountain. I was sure, that, while Kronos and this Apophis dude neglected to make our prison magic-proof and not disarming us, they had drained all the water from the five hundred mile radius.

Luke grasped Backbiter with his left hand. As soon as he touched the evil weapon, the crowd erupted in cheers and stomps: "Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

It did nothing to improve my mood. But I saw something that gave me a flicker of hope. Was it just my imagination, or did Thalia twitch a little bit?

"Bah!" somebody screamed from the stands. Every person and monster turned towards the source of the voice. It belonged to somebody… or _something_ that I couldn't see.

"Just kill her already and be done with it!" the voice said impatiently. "Then, we will be rid of one of the four that stand in our way and you can deal with the boy next, Castellan!"

Luke flinched. "Yes, sir!"

What made him so scared of the voice, I didn't know at that time, but it didn't sound so great. It sounded even harsher than Kronos's, as if he had a lion claw his vocal cords. In short, it was absolutely terrifying, so I guess that I could understand Luke's nervousness. Blast what I said before.

Luke strode over to Thalia and raised his sword, the blade wickedly winking in the open torchlight. But he hesitated. One second, two seconds. One minute.

"Castellan!"

Luke was beaded with sweat, even though it was icy cold in the arena. He appeared to shut his eyes and brought the sword down. I averted my eyes as I heard the sickening _thump_. The sound of a certain sword connecting with a body.

Thalia Grace, as it seemed, was dead.

But there was something wrong. The stadium was deadly silent. There was a single cry of outrage, and then the whole arena exploded into chaos.

I opened my eyes a crack and found that Thalia had completely disappeared. In fact, instead of Backbiter hitting the intended target of the daughter of Zeus, it had taken flight and hit a Laistrygonian giant. Needless to say, the monster had evaporated into dust.

But there was one problem. When the dust cleared, I swept the arena for any sign of the blue-eyed daughter of Zeus and found… nada. Nothing. Empty air as if Thalia had never existed.

"You vaporized her!" a delighted voice called from some obscure place in the stadium spectators.

"Don't be ridiculous, Allen," somebody else called. "Demigods can't be vaporized, not even the weakest child of the dumbest minor god! Much less a child of the Big Three, even lesser of a child of the king of the gods!"

"But she isn't there," Allen dubiously said. "She isn't—"

"Quite the contrary," a voice snarled from one of the balconies. I blinked and whipped towards the source of the voice.

Thalia was still deathly pale, but she wasn't… dead, obviously. Unless a dead corpse could talk and walk and have a beating heart.

"Thalia!" I called, finally kicking myself free from the grasp of the strange guy. She dropped down from the balcony, but as soon as she gave me a feral grin, I knew that something was wrong. There was something different…her eyes. Her eyes, instead of being electric blue, were startling midnight black. They were like tiny black holes. This wasn't the real Thalia. The real Thalia, as I found out was locked in the grasp of the monster, Kampê. She was conscious now, and desperately trying to free herself from the monster. Her wound had been healed, though.

"And it's time for you to die!" the fake Thalia smiled. I didn't even have time to fumble for Riptide, dented as it was. In a flash, I felt the tip of a sword slice my arm open. The sight of my blood, warm and cold at the same time, made me woozy.

"Who…who are you?" I managed. "What kind of crazy person are you?"

The real Thalia yelled, "Don't listen to her, Percy! She's—"

Her mouth was clamped shut by Kampê, and I would never know what she was going to tell me.

"No," the fake Thalia purred, "don't listen to _her_."

"And why should I trust you after you sliced my arm open?" I faintly demanded. My vision was creeping towards blackness. That wasn't a good thing. I didn't want to be pulled into the first stages of unconsciousness.

"Ha!" she snapped, losing her calm demeanor at once. "You don't know who you're facing, boy!"

The real Thalia nodded her head empathetically, willing me to ask who the girl was.

"That's true," I ground out. "I don't know who you are, so who are you?"

"Now we're getting somewhere," she muttered. Luke, from the actual fighting ring, retched, and said, "Why the Hades are you here?"

The same horrible grating voice rose from the spectators: "Silence!"

The girl continued as if nothing had happened. "I'm Crystal," she said, "daughter of Thanatos, reaper of the souls."

Thalia pounded Kampê's scaly forearm and managed to spit out, "And you're an absolute traitor, even worse than Luke!"

"Why do you…" I trailed off, noticing the distinct similarity between Crystal and Thalia.

Crystal didn't answer, just glared at me for asking such a question. As if it would do anybody any harm. Thanatos, the reaper of the souls… why did that name strike a bell in my head? Of course, it was not necessarily that I met Thanatos in person. "Hey, I remember him—uh, your dad!" I brightly said. "He was the guy who got tied up or something by Sisyphus, right?"

Crystal flipped her sword, which I identified as some sort of silvery metal I've never seen before. "Watch your mouth, Jackson. But yes, he's the one. Got tricked by Sisyphus."

I recalled the old man with the potbelly from when we saw him in the Underworld.

Luke impatiently called up, "Are we going to proceed with the second fight already? Or am I just going to stand here all day, waiting for my broken wrist to ferry me into unconsciousness?"

He shot a glance at Thalia, who stopped thrashing for a moment to stare stonily back.

"And of course," Crystal said with a sly smile, "I'm sure that Luke and Thalia remember our encounter from a couple years ago, don't we?"

"Don't even remind me," Luke grumbled. Thalia was making muffled noises from behind Kampê's hand, and I would bet Riptide that she was screaming every foul name she could think of at Crystal. It was all she could do to not make a very nasty hand gesture at Crystal.

I started to say something, but Thalia lost it and in a split second, Kampê went flying to land in the middle of the fighting ring, sending up an impressive plume of dust. Growling, she righted herself and jumped on her scaly dragon legs to imprison Thalia again. She was too late.

Did I mention before that I didn't really want Thalia as an enemy once she literally sent Kampê flying across the whole stadium with electricity as soon as the monster got within ten feet of her?

I gathered my wits, drew Riptide, and hacked at Crystal, who easily parried. But now, she had an enraged look-alike named "Thalia" on her trail. They started—or more accurately, Thalia started chasing after Crystal. They were literally scrambling over the heads of monsters and demigods and giving those who were unfortunate enough to be stepped on a brain seizure.

I watched, amused as Luke ducked to avoid being hit by Crystal's Nike sneakers as she jumped into the fighting ring, Thalia close behind her. He was then spun dizzy by the fact that Thalia was chasing Crystal around the son of Hermes.

"This is even more exciting and suspenseful!" the same girl who had said that Luke's fight with Thalia had been "suspenseful" gushed. She seemed to like the word "suspenseful" a lot.

"Luke Castellan, you dolt!" the raspy voice screamed. "Stop them!"

Luke's eyes were spinning in his sockets and he didn't seem to register the fact that his boss had told him to start chasing two insane girls that were running around the stadium. I wondered if he could get vertigo.

I ran down into the ring myself, ignoring the cries of "Stop!" and "Hey, kid, your turn will come as soon as I get a lemon meringue pie in your face!". It's rather wonderful to know how many people actually care for you in the world.

But as soon as I jumped into the ring, I got trampled underfoot by Crystal and Thalia. So much for being helpful; they were more crazed than a pack of water buffaloes on a sugar high.

Groaning, I rubbed my head and started chasing after Thalia, screaming my lungs out, trying to tell her to stop. I wondered what Poseidon, Annabeth, and Hazel would make of this situation as I got knocked one way by Crystal's beams of dark energy and the other by Thalia's electric shocks. To make a long story short, Annabeth and Hazel would have definitely started giving me a lecture on the spot. I was now positive that Hera was delighted that I was being harassed by her archenemy and a daughter of the god who was tricked by a mere mortal.

"Um, Percy!" a voice called from the stands. The guy in leather armor had brought in Nico and Jay. Nico's eyes flitted at the remarkable scene. "Why exactly is Thalia apparently devoid of reason and is chasing her clone?"

I groaned as I got spun around by Crystal.

"Never mind. I see that you're… preoccupied at the moment," Nico shouted.

"A little help here?" I yelled back.

"I can't escape," Nico said, frustrated. Jay was watching the scene with icy eyes.

I managed to duck as a spidery beam of blue electricity shot past where my head was a millisecond before.

"Stop it!" the evil voice thundered. Willingly or not, Thalia froze in place (I'm guessing unwillingly) but Crystal was free to move about. I tested my limbs and found out that I, at least, could move as well. But with Thalia frozen there like a spider in hardened amber… well, let's just say that things would not turn out all right for her.

"Now that we're _settled_," the voice spat, "kill her."

"No!" Nico and I screamed at the same time.

"I'm glad that you're so willing to help me," Thalia acidly said. She hadn't lost the power of talking, it seems. I didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, she couldn't move, so if she cast a spell of whatever sort, it could land anywhere in the stadium. On the other hand, if she still had the capability of speech… well, better alive than dead.

I thought about the book, _Eragon_, which I had been forced to read in school. If only you could just say, "Brisingr!" and a fire would leap up and incinerate everybody on the spot. Sadly, that wasn't real, even though… ah, you get the idea. If you just said the word "fire", _amsiner_, it would just produce a fire that you can manipulate and stuff like that. Only if you had the drastic power to make the flames flare up, using the word _amsiner_ would be about as of use against a thousand-plus nasties in the stadium as a chip of ice would. Which none of us, not even Nico (who, by the way, is totally awesome with fire spells—come to think of it, I didn't know why he didn't melt Thalia's iceberg…), had mastered yet. So unfair!

I started running through different spells in my head. _Jorst_ wouldn't work (just how effective is a plain of grass against a whole army?). Neither would _feinstanum _(I mean, stones. Really?). I was still pondering over what I would have done in Thalia's situation when she said, "_Ewan ji hunasun amsiner!_"

Wave of liquid fire? Just where exactly was she going? You can't make "liquid fire" unless…

Oh, gods. Æther. The substance that mortals believe is not real, but the ancients were right. It sort of fills a fraction of the universe, but when called upon, is extremely lethal to your enemies. And it usually leaves you right about to drop dead when you summon it.

"Thalia Grace, you idiot!" Crystal screeched. "Just what exactly were you thinking when you summoned æther? You've killed all of us!"

Thalia kept silent, her brow furrowed, concentrating on the spell to make sure it didn't go amiss. A minute passed. Two minutes.

Just when I thought that the spell had failed, Thalia's eyes rolled back in her head and she froze, obviously held in place by the spell that the raspy voice had uttered, yet unconscious. There was an ominous creaking sound. The stone and marble roof turned cherry-red. I had just the sense to drag Thalia out of the way and jump for cover (a.k.a. outside with Nico and Jay) as the small, seemingly harmless golf-sized ball zoomed towards the ground. Crystal leaped and snatched Luke and had the nerve to follow us as the small, molten, brightly gleaming ball of æther hit the exact center of the stadium.


End file.
